Builder Manual Chap. 03
Note: To perform any operation on an object it must be selected. To select an object simply left click on it, the selected object will turn blue to indicate that it is selected. To unselect objects simply left click on empty space. Object Properties The properties window is an extremely useful tool, and you're probably going to use it more often than any other window widget. The properties window allows you to tweak and change various properties of the selected object(s). #'Object Name' -The name of the object. This is a unique value for every object in the scene, you cannot have two objects with the same name*. This value is often used to get access to the object in the scripting layer. Directly bellow the name field you will find the asset path, which is the location (and owner) of that asset. Physics Properties #'Position' - A 3D Vector (XYZ) that represents the location within the world that the object occupies. #'Rotation' - A 3D Vector (HPR) that represents the orientation of an object relative to its center. #'Size' - A 3D Vector (WHD) that represents the size of an object relative to its center. #'1:1' - Specify whether to keep the original ratio between Width, Height and Depth. With this option checked the object will just get bigger, it won't stretch, even if you change only one of the size properties. #'Mass' - The physical weight of the object. This will determine how much of an impact this object will have when colliding with other objects. #'Locked' - Locking an object makes it so that you can't modify it or even select it. Locking objects is a very useful feature since you can prevent yourself or others to accidentally moving or changing an object that you don't want to. To unlock an object you must RIGHT-CLICK it, and select Unlock. #'Anchored' - Anchored objects will not be affected by collisions or other physics based forces. However, other, non-anchored objects will be affected by the anchored objects. #'Anchored in Builder' - This has the same effect as Anchored, except the object won't be moved by other objects within the builder, but when the game starts it will be affected by physics and other objects. #'Collidable '- When this property is turned off the object won't collide with any other objects IN-GAME. This property has no effect on the builder, it only applies to the game itself. Objects with this turned off will not receive "CollisionHandler()" calls. #'Weightless' - When this property is turned off the object won't be affected by gravity, it won't fall, but it will still be affected by other objects that collide with it, and it will be affected by physics forces (except gravity of course). #'Lock Axis' - Locking an axis prevents any change to that value. So for example, if you lock the 'X' axis the object won't move left and right, if you lock the 'Z' axis the object won't move up and down, the 'Y' it won't move back and forth. You can lock multiple movement axes. So if you wanted to make a 2D platformer, you would lock all of your objects to the 'Y' axis, so they can only move up and down, and sideways. #'Lock Rotation' - Same as the above except it locks rotations. Visual Properties #'Color Tint' - Allows you to specify the color of the object. If the object already has a texture the colors will be multiplied, so to show only the texture, reset the color to white. #'Casts Shadow' - Whether the object casts a shadow. #'Receives Light' - Whether the lights in the scene affect the object. #'Texture(s)' - The texture assigned to this object. You can drag and drop textures into this box, or you can click the (...) to use the folder explorer to find a texture. You can also manually type the location of a texture. Script Properties #'Script File' - The script file that contains the class that the object will be associated with. #'Script Class' - The class that the Scene Object is going to inherit additional funcitonality from. For more information read "Setting the Class of a Scene Object" section, on Chap. 07B --- Class Definitions 6of the programming manual. Save Properties #'Upload to Blueprint' - Saves the currently selected objects into a blueprint file. Which can later be loaded in the builder or with code to spawn those objects. *Note About Textboxes: When a user is editing text, the text box will be red. The actual value of the property being edited won't be set until the text box becomes blank again. So to set a value, edit the text box and then press enter or click outside the text box. If the value is accepted the box will turn blank, if not, it will remain red and the property will not change. *Note about Blueprints: Here 7 is a brief explanation on how to use blueprints to create levels. Move, Rotate, Scale Move, Scale and Rotate tools are all very similar. They are all activated with the mouse or through keyboard shortcuts (1 move, 2 rotate, 3 scale), and they are all operated with the mouse. All of these affect the respective properties described above. So the Move tool affects the "Position" properties, the Rotate tool affects the "Rotation" properties, and the Scale tool affects the "Size" property. #'Move' - Click one of the arrows (red arrow manipulates the 'X' axis, green the 'Y', and blue the 'Z') and drag around the object. If you click one of the yellow squares you will manipulate two axes (they will highlight to let you know which ones will be affected). And if you click the object itself and move the mouse around you will move all axes in relation to the camera. #'Rotate' - This one is fairly straightforward, click one of the rings around the object to rotate it in the direction of the ring. Click the object itself to rotate freely around all axes. #'Scale' - This tool only allows for uniform scaling (1:1), simply click anywhere and drag the mouse, if you drag it away from the object it will get bigger, if you drag towards the object, it will get smaller. Multi-Select In addition to the Move, Rotate, and Scale tools, there are also the “Joint Tool” (described below) and the "Select Tool". You don't have to have the "Select Tool" active in order to select multiple objects. Left click + hold and drag works with every tool with the exception of the "Joint Tool". The simplest way is to just left click, hold the button, and drag a box that encompasses the objects you want selected. Clicking on objects while holding 'Ctrl' adds the object to the currently selected objects as well. When multiple objects are selected the Object Name property in the Object Properties window will display "Multiple Objects Selected". If you change a property while multiple objects are selected it will change it for all selected objects. If all selected objects have the same value on a property (Collidable, for example) the property will show this value, otherwise it will be blank. Note: In order to select multiple objects the box created by dragging the mouse has to encompass the entirety of the object being selected. If an edge is standing outside of the selection box, the object will not get selected. Clone Cloning objects is an extremely useful feature, it creates an identical copy of the object, with a slightly modified name. The cloned object keeps the same properties, size, position, etc. To clone an object, select it and go to "Edit->Clone". You can also right click on an object and select "Clone" from the context menu. In addition to those, there is a keyboard shortcut that lets you quickly clone objects. If you hold Shift while moving an object, it will create a clone and you will start to move the clone instead Once you clone an object it will have the same exact position, so you won't see it since it will be over the original. Make sure to move the object after you clone it, so that you don't end up with multiple objects on top of eachother. Delete Deleting objects is simple. You can right click a selected object and hit delete, or you can just hit the "Delete" button on your keyboard. Joints Joints are a powerful tool. Basically, when you create a joint between two objects it will create an object in the middle that is conneted to both joined objects. This joint will try to keep the same distance from both objects, so if you move one, the other will follow. If you lock one object, the other will just hang, always keeping the same distance that they had when they were joined. To use the Joints tool, simply click one object, and drag the mouse to another object that you want to join the original with. Context Menu Context menu is the Right Click menu. It has many functions, and the options it shows will change depending on the situation you are in. If you right click on an object, you will be able to delete it, lock it, clone it, select it, etc. When you right click on an item in the folder explorer other options will appear. Listing every option that appears in the context menu for every possible situation would be counter productive. Simply know that you can access commonly used tasks and functionality with a simple right mouse click. If you're familiar with Windows and how you can use the right click menu to do lots of useful things, then you should be familiar with the system.